Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar will bring a proposal to the cabinet at its next meeting to invest ₪3 million (~$820,000) from the Foreign Ministry budget to develop and upgrade the “State’s Balcony” site in Peduel, Samaria. The initiative will be carried out in cooperation with the Tourism Ministry and is designed to strengthen Israel’s public diplomacy efforts.
The budget will be used to build advanced content stations combining observation points with accessible information in multiple languages, and to develop interactive content displayed in a dedicated room. The investment comes against the backdrop of a 15-fold increase in foreign delegations visiting Israel—including elected officials, journalists, and opinion leaders—who are directly exposed to the country’s security challenges.
“The geographic and topographic location of the ‘State’s Balcony’ makes it a premier advocacy tool,” Sa’ar said. “Visitors to the site see with their own eyes the ‘narrow waist’ of the state at its pre-Six-Day War borders and the dangers of relinquishing Israeli control over areas that topographically dominate all its population centers.”